The new management of Forte Oil Plc has said that the company is neither thinking of delisting from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) nor buying out the minority shareholders through a Mandatory Tender Offering (MTO).
Chief Executive Officer of the company, Mr. Olumide Adeosun, made the clarification at an interactive session with journalists in Lagos during which the company announced the new management’s strategy to drive sustainable growth.
Adeosun said that the new owners are in the business for the long term and would want every stockholder to hold their stakes. “Our message to our minority shareholders is that we are going to sustain the business here, we want people to retain their shares in this company. Our views and our desires is that people who are stockholders of this company continue to remain stockholders of this company and benefit from the dividend we hope to discuss over time. Our desire for our shareholders is like our desires for our people. We are not going to let them go, we want our shareholders. We want long time investment.”
He noted that the company had put together a strong Board made up of professionals who would take the company to the next level.
Nonetheless, he said that the company would likely rebrand in future to reflect the new structure, noting that “Forte Oil brand will remain in place pending when we decide to change it.”
The company’s strategic future focus would be on the people, customers, shareholders and sound corporate governance, and would build on good corporate governance already in place in Forte Oil by ensuring regular release of relevant information.
Adeosun said that the newly acquired company would focus on increasing volumes, diversifying business operations, widening distribution networks and extracting potential synergies to boost revenue.
He described the investment as having strategic importance to support the quest for continuously adding value to the Nigerian oil and gas industry. He said that the company would also tap into investing massively in the downstream sector to achieve desired growth required.
He said that despite the regulated price of petrol product in the country, Forte Oil would still break even in other petroleum products in the downstream sub-sector.
The Forte Oil boss said that the company was also investing in Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) through partnership with Prudent Energy on 6,000 metric tonnes which is expected to commence in July.
Forte Oil on June 20, 2019 appointed new Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer following the completion of the sale of Mr. Femi Otedola’s shares in the firm’s downstream operations.
